About membership

By joining the Climate Action Network you will link into Australia’s biggest network of organisations working to confront the climate crisis. You’ll be supported to share information about your campaigns and activities and to link with others working on the issues you are passionate about.

Application for membership to the network is open to CANA board-approved, non-profit organisations or educational institutions of any size and legal form, situated in Australia. Membership benefits for a network organisation do not extend to subsidiary groups of that member. Membership contributions are progressive based on the size of your organisation, the capacity to contribute and the level of involvement you want to have with the network.

We have two types of membership - 'Committed to Leadership' or 'Regular' - depending on how you’d like to be involved. The benefits of each type of membership are outlined below. Affiliation is for those organisations or groups which are unincorporated. They share the same privileges as members, but Affiliates do not have the right to vote in CANA board elections and participate in internal decision-making at the annual AGM.

How to apply

If you’re interested in becoming a member of the Network, please submit an application form.

Once submitted, a member of the Network Support Team will contact you within 2 weeks. Following that confirmation all new membership applications will go to the CANA Board for approval. In order for us to progress your application, we will require a representative from a current CANA member organisation to nominate your organisation. This CANA member needs to be an incorporated organisation (they are able to vote at our AGM).

Benefits of membership

Benefit	Committed to Leadership	Regular Member	Affiliate
Invited to CANA strategy retreats.	x
Participation in strategy and campaign working groups, including in constituency and place-based meetings.	x
Support, coordination and facilitation for members to start new working groups on strategic priorities.	x
Formal input into network evaluation and strategic planning processes, thought leadership, and communication channels.	x
Access and ability to send an email to everyone in the CANAchat email-group, which includes member communications about strategy; research; key environmental, social & political moments to respond to; member campaigns, events, successes & personnel movement; a daily news digest.	x	x	x
Access to the relevant CANA Slack workspace for members to collaborate by sharing messages, tools and files.	x	x	x
Access to CANA communications such as CANA newsletters and CANA webinars.	x	x	x
Invited to attend CANA’s national conference.	x	x	x
Invited to participate in regular online CANA meetings with grassroots organisations located Australia-wide to identify collaboration opportunities.	x	x	x
Invited to apply for a CANA Small Grant to support grassroots organising.	x	x	x
Able to apply for one of CANA’s limited “official observer” badges to attend UN Climate Conferences.	x	x	x
Access to CAN-International working groups, policy development processes and email lists.	x	x	x
Voting rights to elect the CANA board and participate in internal decision-making at the annual AGM.	x	x

Membership fees

The Network seeks to be as inclusive as possible, and membership contributions are based on the capacity to contribute and determined using a progressive scale:

Organisation Type	Income / Expenditure*	FTE paid Staff	Committed (C)	Regular (M)
Core Members	variable	variable	$32,300	n/a
X-Large	over $6 million	many	$21,530	$10,760
Large	over $4 million	many	$12,910	$6,450
Big	over $1 million	several	$5,380	$1,610
Medium	over $500K	several	$2,150	$1,075
Small	over $100K	at least one	$1,075	$535
Volunteer or grassroots local	under $100K	volunteer	$535	$105

*Whichever is greater; income is calculated by the most recent Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) figures available (if applicable).

An organisation can request its membership fees be based on its total budget minus its budget for international programs and/or service delivery - see definitions below:

International programs = humanitarian relief, development assistance and other activities that delivered outside of Australia.

Service delivery = activities that do not centre on advocacy, campaigning, research, policy, mobilisation or communications. Examples include social welfare services and union member representation. Fees will be calculated by the Network Support Team based on publicly available information (ACNC entry or annual report), or request the organisation provide additional information.

Note:

All fee levels are ex GST and current from 1 July 2022.

As a form of Pay the Rent, we waive committed-to-leadership membership fees for First Nations-led organisations focusing on climate justice and climate change from an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander perspective.

If you have any questions about the Network or membership, please get in touch with [email protected].